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Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

I found a real simple dandelion wine recipe that calls for 6 cups of sugar. I would rather use honey instead, how much honey should I use? Will it work? Thanks

Dandelion Wine
Dandelion wine does not require any special equipment to make. Just dandelions, some sugar and yeast, oranges and lemons, and pots to boil water in. This recipe uses cloves, which I think give it a nice touch. If you have dandelions around, give it a try!

Re: Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

I have never looked into conversion factors. I'd suggest using a HYDROMETER and add honey to the desired potential alcohol level.
If you do not understand this, slow down until you do, you will be happier with your end result.

Re: Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

Sugar is listed in most brewing extract tables as yielding 45 points per pound per gallon (ppppg); meaning 1 pound of sugar disolved in 1 gallon of water yields a SG of 1.045. Honey is listed as 35 ppppg. So if a recipe calls for sugar and you want to use honey instead, multiply the weight of sugar by 1.29 (45/35) and you will get the weight of honey that you need.

In your case since the recipe calls for 6 cups of sugar, you will have to weight 6 cups of sugar and go from there. You cant do the calculation by volume (well actually you can, but it's too much work for me right now).

Re: Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

It would be a straight up waste of good honey to put it in Dandelion Wine. However yes it will work. Weigh out your sugar and use the same weight of honey + 18% more honey to compensate for the water in it. Last time I had some Dandelion wine it tasted too acidic. I dumped that crap out!

Re: Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

Originally Posted by Nabber86

No trying to be argumentive, but how does one measure 9.44, 2.36, 11.8, or 23.6 cups? Seems like weight is the best way to go.

9.44,,,, I would say 9 and a half would bee real close because .5 is half and its only 6 one hundreds of a cup off ,,,, 2.36 ,,,, .33 is 1/3 because .36 is real real close to a third ,, it would be 3 one hundreds of a cup off of a 1/3 ,, . 8 I would say is real close to 3/4 because .75 is 3/4 so that makes it 5 one hundreds off ,,,,, .6 is real close to 1/2 because .5 is half ,,, remember your making mead , and that little + or - is not going to be enough to change the taste a lot , but if thats not close enough ,, then you better get a real good scale that goes to .000 so you will be less then a thousandth of a pound off ,,and go by it ...

Re: Changing sugar to honey in wine recipe

Really, it will be much easier (and remember, this is supposed to be fun!) to target an alcohol content you want and the residual sweetness you want. Then it's simple math to reckon how much honey in how much water to get you there... see the intro to meadmaking for how. Or weigh a cup of sugar and extrapolate.